1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns composing an image in an image composing system, such as a digital copier, by using block selection in conjunction with a user interface to allow the user to more efficiently identify different blocks of an image and to easily apply editing functions to selected ones of the blocks via the user interface.
2. Description of the Related Art
Typical copiers are comprised of a scanning operation in which an image is scanned from a document, and a printing operation in which the scanned image is printed a predetermined number of times according to the user""s input from an input device such as a keypad or touch screen. Some copiers may also provide the user with the ability to perform some types of modifications to the scanned image before the scanned image is copied. In such a conventional copier system, certain functions are available for the user to modify the scanned image, including editing functions, such as cropping and moving portions of the scanned image. Other such functions include color conversion and contrast adjustment functions.
The ability of the user to perform these functions on the scanned image is often difficult due to the cumbersome user interface of such systems. For example, in order to apply such editing or color conversion functions, the user has to painstakingly identify the desired area of the scanned image to be modified. This identification is often performed by having the user input the boundary limits of the desired portion, such as the corners of the desired portion, so that the copier can designate such portion for editing and/or color conversion. The user must then find the desired function command from a series of function menus to apply to the designated area.
This process is typically cumbersome and prone to error for several reasons. First, there may not be a pre-view monitor available to assist the user in designating the desired area to be modified. Even if such a pre-view monitor is provided, such as a touch screen, it is difficult due to the size of the pre-view monitor for the user to determine a desired area for editing. It is also difficult for the user to accurately indicate the boundary of the desired area to the copier due to the size and resolution of the pre-view area. For example, it may be difficult for a user to accurately discern the boundary of an area in the scanned image which contains text from an area which contains a graphic image.
Second, once the user has designated a desired are to the copier, such as a block of text, the user must typically sort through a variety of function menus to find and select the desired editing or color conversion function. For example, if the user wishes to perform a xe2x80x9csharpen textxe2x80x9d function on the designated block of text, the user must sort through a fixed, predetermined assortment of menus to find the desired function. This is often cumbersome because the fixed, predetermined assortment of menus include many other editing and/or color conversion functions which may have no relevance to the designated block. For instance, a color adjustment function may have no relevance to a block of the scanned image which contains only text.
The aforementioned problems with conventional copiers make the editing and/or color conversion of desired portions of a scanned image difficult for a user to perform, as well as time consuming. In addition, the foregoing problems can introduce errors due to the inability to accurately identify a particular portion of the scanned image for modification.
The present invention addresses the foregoing problems by allowing a user of an image composing system to more efficiently identify the different components of an image and to apply editing, color adjustment and other functions to selected components via a user interface. Specifically, the invention concerns composing an image by using a block selection process in conjunction with a user interface to allow the user to more efficiently identify different blocks of an image and to easily apply editing functions to the blocks via the user interface.
Accordingly, one aspect of the invention concerns composing image data representing an original image in an image processing device, the image processing device having an input device and a display device, including performing a block selection process on the image data to identify at least one image block and to determine a set of block attribute data for each identified image block, displaying a composite image on the display device, the composite image comprised of each identified image block superimposed on the original image, receiving a block designation command from the input device, the block designation command designating one of the identified image blocks as a designated image block, and displaying, in response to the block designation command, a function command list for the designated image block, the function command list containing a plurality of function commands based on the set of block attribute data for the designated image block.
Preferably, the plurality of functions are selected for inclusion in the function command list based on the set of attributes corresponding to the designated image block. The identified blocks are preferably displayed on a display device in conjunction with the scanned image for subsequent convenient designation by the user. Also, one of the plurality of function commands is preferably selected by the user and then a corresponding function is applied to the image data. The modified image data is then preferably sent to the printer for printing. The identified image blocks from the block selection process preferably include blocks based on text, photo, graphics, etc. Also, preferably, the plurality of functions includes editing functions and color conversion functions.
By virtue of the foregoing, the invention allows a block selection process to be used which automatically identifies the various blocks of the scanned image. In addition, an appropriate function list is generated and displayed which contains functions which are relevant and most likely to be used based on the type of designation image blocks.
According to another aspect, the invention concerns composing an image in an image copying apparatus, the image copying apparatus having a scanning device, a printing device, a display device and an input device, including scanning, by the scanning device, an original image to obtain image data corresponding to the original image, performing a block selection process on the image data to identify at least one image block and to determine a set of block attribute data for each identified image block, displaying a composite image on the display device, the composite image comprised of each identified image block superimposed on the original image, receiving a block designation command from the input device, the block designation command designating one of the identified image blocks as a designated image block, displaying, in response to the block designation command, a function command list for the designated image block, the function command list containing a plurality of function commands based on the set of block attribute data for the designated image block, receiving from the input device a selected function command from one of the plurality of function commands in the function command list, performing a function corresponding to the selected function command on a portion of the image data which corresponds to the designated image block so as to create modified image data, and sending the modified image data to the printing device for printing an image which corresponds to the modified image data.
Preferably, the plurality of function commands are selected for inclusion in the function command list based on the set of attributes corresponding to the designated image block. The identified image blocks are preferably displayed on a display device in conjunction with the scanned image for subsequent convenient designation by the user. Also, one of the plurality of function commands is preferably selected by the user with the input device and then a corresponding function is applied to the scanned image data. The identified image blocks from the block selection process preferably include image blocks based on text, photo, graphics, etc. Also, preferably, the plurality of function commands includes editing functions and color conversion functions.
By virtue of the foregoing, the invention allows a block selection process to be used which automatically identifies the various image blocks of the scanned image. In addition, an appropriate function command list is displayed containing function commands which are relevant and most likely to be used in response to a designation by the user of one of the types of blocks.
According to yet another aspect, the invention concerns composing an image in an image processing device having a display device, an input device, a scanning device and a printing device, including receiving, from the scanning device, image data corresponding to an original image, performing a first block selection process on the image data to identify at least one image block, and to identify a set of block attribute data corresponding to each identified image block, receiving a function command from the input device, the function command corresponding to a designated one of the image blocks, performing a function corresponding to the function command on a portion of the image data which represents the designated image block so as to generate modified image data, and performing a second block selection process on the modified image data to identify at least one image block, and to identify a set of block attribute data corresponding to each identified image block.
Preferably, the function command is based on the set of attributes corresponding to the designated image block. The identified image blocks are preferably displayed on a display device in conjunction with the scanned image for subsequent convenient designation by the user. Also, the function command is preferably input by the user and then a corresponding function is applied to the scanned image data. The identified image blocks from the block selection process preferably include image blocks based on text, photo, graphics, etc. Also preferably, the function command may correspond to an editing function or a color conversion function. The image data on which the block selection is performed is preferably of low resolution.
By virtue of the foregoing, the invention allows a block selection process to be used which automatically identifies the various blocks of the scanned image. In addition, a set of attributes for each identified image block is maintained throughout the editing process by using subsequent applications of the block selection process.
According to a final aspect of the invention, the invention concerns composing an image in an image copying apparatus, the image copying apparatus having a scanning device, a printing device, a display device and an input device, including scanning, by the scanning device, an original image to obtain image data corresponding to the original image, performing a first block selection process on the image data to identify at least one image block, and to determine a set of block attribute data for each identified image block, displaying a composite image on the display device, the composite image being comprised of each identified image blocks superimposed on the original image, receiving a block designation command from the input device, the block designation command designating one of the identified image blocks as a designated image block, displaying, in response to the block designation command, a function command list for the designated image block, the function command list containing a plurality of function commands based on the set of block attribute data for the designated image block, receiving a selected function command from the input device, the selected function command corresponding to the designated image block, performing a function corresponding to the selected function command on a portion of the image data which corresponds to the designated image block so as to create modified image data, performing a second block selection process on the modified image data to identify at least one image block, and to identify a set of block attribute data corresponding to each identified image block, and sending the modified image data to the printing device to print an image corresponding to the modified image data.
Preferably, the plurality of function commands are selected for inclusion in the function command list based on the set of attributes corresponding to the designated image block. The identified image blocks are preferably displayed on a display device in conjunction with the scanned image for subsequent convenient designation by the user. Also, one of the plurality of function commands is preferably selected by the user with the input device and then a corresponding function is applied to the scanned image data. The identified image blocks from the block selection process preferably include image blocks based on text, photo, graphics, etc. Also, preferably, the plurality of function commands includes editing functions and color conversion functions. The image data on which the block selection is performed is preferably of low resolution.
By virtue of the foregoing, the invention allows a block selection process to be used which automatically identifies the various image blocks of the scanned image. In addition, an appropriate function command list is displayed containing function commands which are relevant and most likely to be used in response to a designation by the user of one of the types of image blocks.
This brief summary has been provided so that the nature of the invention may be understood quickly. A more complete understanding of the invention can be obtained by reference to the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment thereof in connection with the attached drawings.